Today we visited EVN to finally complain about the August electricity bill. Of course it was a bit frustrating but at the moment, I do not have to pay my electricity bills until the problem is resolved.
In short, they went through the same excuses that the workers who checked my meter went through. First they tried to blame me for not being home when they checked the reading. I said I was and gave them the electronic receipt of my power readings that their employee gave me. Then they said it was not the accurate form since the employee wrote his cell number on it. Yeah, they said that.
They were trying to convince me that my normal usages was 560 kWh per month until I showed them the readings from the last 4 years. After one hour they decided to possibly give me a new power reading. If the numbers were the same, they would consider refunding me.
What I did find interesting was that EVN admitted that somebody could steal electricity from my house even though the power meter was IN my house. They said it could be done down the power line away from my house. They said that we had no proof, though, so we still had to pay. This is interesting since several friends told me that it does happen. Former employees work together with employees from EVN to steal electricity.
For me, they probably thought that since I am normally not home when they checked my reading that I would not notice. They never suspected that I would actually keep my own records. You know, you weren’t home so we had to guess your reading which was LOWER than actual. Hence I had to pay the remaining electricity the next month. It would have worked but I happened to be home for the August readings.
EVN did tell me to turn off all my circuit breakers in my house and to check the meter a couple hours later, not the actual meter. If the meter still moves, they want me to call them. That means somebody is taking my electricity.
Overall though, I will have to pay regardless of the outcome.
This is Vietnam…
I got a big surprises this morning. The electricity in my house went out which, for a Friday, is normal. What was not normal was hearing the loud music from my neighbor’s house. Power outages normally means quiet alleyways, usually. So I opened my balcony door and saw EVN climbing down the pull. They turned off my electricity.
The poor guy who turned the electricity off knew the problem I was having with EVN over August’s reading. Luckily he stayed near my house so we can talk. He had no choice but to turn off the electricity, that was his job. We had to call his manager to get approval to turn the electricity back on. Finally EVN will let us speak with them to discuss the high August reading.
The manager agreed to let the EVN staff member climb back up the utility pull to turn on my electricity. On Monday we meet with EVN.
On a more funny note, my neighbor’s really enjoyed the “show” they saw. Mr. Ut laughed at me for not paying but when he saw the August bill, he understood. I think it amused them more when EVN turned the electricity back on.
Overall, though, I am hearing from friends that ’stealing’ electricity is more common than reported in the media. The question is how can somebody steal electricity from houses when the meter is located inside the house?
Hopefully on Monday we can make a compromise for August so I we can avoid this in the future. I only have about 2 months left in this house.
On a positive note, EVN’s employees are very nice, I never had problems with them. They are just doing their jobs and they have been very helpful to me at my house. The EVN staff member could have just left and continued doing his work. He did not have to stay at my house. He did it as a courtesy and I really appreciate that. 
EVN took my power reading last month. It is roughly back to normal, we used about 460 kWh which is about the norm for September. EVN still cannot explain why the reading was 2.5 times higher in August. Today an EVN employee tried to get me to pay for both months which I refused.
My housemate and I do agree, if the problem was with the house, we should still see a power loss similar to last month. We do not. This is clearly an oddity that EVN is clueless about. Still no update from them. I was told to pay for this month’s bill only until EVN resolves last months.
Below are my electricity usage in this house since 2006 including September readings:
- August, 2006 – 461 kWh
- September, 2006 – 461 kWh
- August, 2007 – 142 kWh
- September, 2007 – 227 kWh (I was in the US)
- August, 2008 – 325 kWh
- September, 2008 – 492 kWh
From 2009:
- January, 2009 – 421 kWh
- February, 2009 – 425 kWh
- March, 2009 – 386 kWh
- April, 2009 – 386 kWh
- May, 2009 – 390 kWh
- June, 2009 – 392 kWh
- July, 2009 – 392 kWh
- August, 2009 – 895 kWh
- September, 2009 – 460 kWh
EVN informed my friend today that the power meter was fine and that the billing was accurate. When asked why their reading was nearly 3 times higher than normal, quite naturally, EVN blamed me. They said that I was never at home so they had to guess the reading and charged me that. They said that they MUST have been giving me a lower reading for the past couple of months or more. Hence, I am now just paying for the electricity that I used in the past.
Nice try EVN…
Tonight I found the receipt the EVN guy gave after he read my power meter on August 25th which included the readings for BOTH July and August. My last bill also had the reading I sent to EVN by SMS and EVN confirmed it. So as of August, I have paid for all the electricity that I used.
Now what is more interesting is that since the reading took place on August 25th and the next reading was on September 21st, that meant I was using more than 33 kWh per day. Impossible since both my housemate and I are never home for most of the day.
It is beginning to look that the ‘infallible’ meter was actually be the problem here.
I hope to resolve this within a week. EVN will take their next reading in one week.
Well, it has been 16 days since I complained to EVN about the 895 kWh bill for last month. Two days ago they sent about 3 workers to look at my power meter. They spent about one hour and a half to see if there was a problem.
Before they started the tests, they tried to tell me that since I was not home, the EVN guy who reads the power meters could not write down the correct number. Nice try but it was not true. Every month I SMS’d the reading to EVN. Then they moved to another scenario. They said that since my walls sometimes leaked during a rainstorm, my house would use more electrictiy. Finally they even admitted this was a ridiculous idea and not true.
Thus, they had to test my power meter. After about 20 minutes, they concluded that it was not faulty and made me sign a piece of paper saying the tests were good. They still could not answer why the reading was so high though which was supposed to be their job. Instead they left.
On Monday, we will have to complain to EVN again but it seems they are on our side. That number to them is quite suspicious as well. In the end, we will probably have to compromise on what I will pay to EVN.
According to EVN’s current readings, we have only used about 300 kWh since Sept. 9 to October 10. A really big difference, isn’t it?
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